using VISA without max

[Braithwaite]

using VISA without max. i have sent an .exe labview file to a collegue to test who doesnt have max or labview but does obviously have the labview runtime engine. He needs to control com port 3 but i need a way in which he can tell the .exe file that the visa control needs to be takling to COM3. I dont obviously have max with him to set the com port b4 he uses it. any ideas?

[LuI]

Have a control for the VISA ressource on the FP of the LabVIEW app.  So your colleague can choose which port to use. And when builing the app include serial support and VISA .
Greetings from Germany!<br>-- <br>Uwe 

[Dennis_Knutson]

Explain a little more about your setup. The collegue obviously needs to have VISA run-time installed but beyond that, I don't understand the need to do anything in MAX. If you have a front panel control on the program that allows for selection of a com port, it will list all available ports and the selection can be made there. If you've created a constant in the program called "Com3", you could change that to ASRL3::INSTR which is the actual VISA Resource Name and not the alias. You can also create the alias "Com3" for ASRL3::INSTR in the file \VXIpnp\WinNT\NIvisa\visaconf.ini. My understanding is that the latest version of the VISA run-time creates the aliases during installation.

[Braithwaite]

thankyou for your extremely swift response. basically i have just sent  a colleague an .exe file to run a device on his PC through COM port 3. He has downloaded and installed the LV and VISA 3.41 run time engines. But teh communication link is not allowing him to actually talk to the device, and the error seems to be a VISA read error.  the .exe i sent him has a VISA control on the front panel which in theory was going to allow him to access his COM 3 so that the program can talk to the device. but this didnt work. I have now hard wired in COM 3 from my end of the PC. and am going to send him that instead and see if that works. thanks for your help. will keep you posted.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Well, when your colleague clicks on the VISA control, what choices appear? If Com3 is not selectabe there, hardwiring in your program is not going to make a bit of difference. If Com3 is an available choice, then it should work either way. What exactly is the error code being generated?

[Braithwaite]

its sorted. not sure why as like you said hardwiring it shouldnt make a bit of difference but it seems to communicate perfectly now. the only thing i can think of is if there was something wrong with his VISA runtime. doesnt make any logical sense to me, but hes sorted and hes sent off the device so alls happy. thanks again for your help. the fast response was much appreciated. just made sure i wasnt overlooking anything simple. thanks